Tackling child overweight in Primary Care: the role of motivational interviewing

Objective: the primary objective is to assess the impact of a programme for tackling child overweight based on motivational interviewing, by measuring changes in the body mass index Z-scores, eating patterns and physical activity levels. The agreement between two physical activity questionnaires will also be assessed.

Methods: we propose to carry out an interventional study on children aged between 6 and 12 years old. All children from five paediatric doctor’s lists at the participating primary care health centres identified as overweight in the 6-year-old health check-up will be candidates for this study (body mass index >85th percentile and < 95th percentile). Children with secondary obesity or those who would not be properly followed-up will be excluded from the study.Asix-sessioninterventionbased onmotivational interviewing, will be performed. A nutritionand physical activityquestionnaire will be administered at baseline, at 4months andat the end oftheintervention..Factors associated to pre-post changes will be studied via multivariate regression models. The agreement between the physical activity questionnaires will be assessed with the Kappa coefficient. Statistical analysis will be performed using SPSS version 21. The greatest limitation of this study is the lack of skills for motivational interviewing among the participating clinicians. To address this limitation, the participating clinicians will attend specific workshops on motivational interviewing focused on child obesity. Another limitation is the lack of a control group.